AG11 RyePA - have i stuffed it?

[Bobba]

So brewed my take on Mountain Goat's Rye IPA, as here...
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=44116#p464526
yesterday. Realised today that I made a bit of a cock up with the wheat.
Here's the original grist
Traditional ale malt 2row 58%, Rye 20%, Wheat 15%, Pale crystal 7%
I think I must have forgotten to order wheat malt for this recipe, but then ordered torrified wheat for another brew, and then just assumed that the kg of torrified wheat was this brew. Will it matter? 1kg of torrified wheat malt in a very pale ipa?

So here's what I came up with, for hop/grist substitutions etc.

Batch Size (fermenter): 23.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.055 SG
Estimated Color: 12.8 EBC
Estimated IBU: 52.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 58.00 % <-balls!
Mash Efficiency: 64.1 % <- balls!
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
3.00 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (Bairds) (6.0 EBC Grain 42.7 %
0.53 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (4.5 EBC) Grain 7.5 %
1.20 kg Rye Malt (Brupaks) (5.9 EBC) Grain 17.1 %
1.00 kg Wheat, Torrified (3.3 EBC) Grain 14.2 %
0.40 kg Caramalt (Thomas Fawcett) (29.6 EBC) Grain 5.7 %
0.25 kg Oat Husks (0.0 EBC) Grain 3.6 % <- to make sparging easier, rye normally v gloopy
0.65 kg Light Dry Extract [Boil for60 min](12.0 Dry Extract 9.2 % <- added at start of boil after getting rubbish efficiency

30.00 g Pacific Gem [14.60 %] - First Wort 60.0 Hop 40.8 IBUs
25.00 g Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 11.2 IBUs
20.00 g Citra [11.50 %] - Aroma Steep 0.0 min Hop 0.0 IBUs

1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast -

17.00 g Citra [11.50 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 0.0 IBUs
28.00 g Green Bullet [13.70 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Day Hop 0.0 IBUs

2.00 tsp Gypsum (Calcium Sulphate) (Mash 60.0 min Water Agent -
2.00 tsp Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent -
1.00 tsp Gypsum (Calcium Sulphate) Boil (Boil 60. Water Agent -
1.00 Items Protofloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining -
1.00 Items Servomyces (Boil 10.0 mins) Other -
1.00 tbsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining -

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 7.03 kg
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 18.36 l of water at 73.4 C 67.0 C 90 min

Hit 67C on the nose, happy with that!
Mash pH was 5.0 - struggling a lot to get 5.3. The previous brew I tried reducing the salts by 1/2 according to Graham's calculator, but still got 4.9pH. This time I tried only reducing alkalinity down to 30mg/l instead of 20, wondering if a lack of buffering effect was messing things up, but still pH is too low. The alkalinity on my tap water had increased from 75 to 95 since the last brew, so god only knows whats going on with the rest of the ions each brew!
Mash efficiency was only 64% which is too low for my liking. Realised that it's always the strong beers where I get a low efficiency. The session beers easily get into high 70's. It must be the lack of sparge water that's reducing the efficiency. I've also insreased the grist/liquor ratio to 2.8 recently, but I think I'll back down on that for the stronger beers, to help reserve more sparge water. Going to increase the sparge temp from 82C to 85C next time also, and keep a closer eye on the grain bed temperature, as I should be getting that up to 76C I believe, to get maximal sugar extraction.

[Bobba]

Tying up loose ends here....
with regard to the use of torrified wheat instead of wheat malt, this brew turned out a real cracker! Used polyclar to get the clarity and it worked a real treat. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=43107&p=473919#p464770
Green bullets smelt of cheese when I went to dry hop, so just went in more with the citra. Not really got sunk into this keg yet, but at kegging stage it was tasting AMAZING! Will report back with full tasting notes...

[WishboneBrewery]

Pacific Gem & Citra sounds like it might make a good late hopping combo